Wholesale-Price based inflation (WPI) slipped into the negative territory for the first time in almost three years, as overall prices eased across the board for the month of April this year. The WPI inflation fell (minus) 0.92 percent in April 2023, as compared to 1.34 percent recorded in March and 15.38 percent in April last year. The WPI inflation has fallen into negative for the first time since July 2020.
The decline in the rate of inflation in the month of April is primarily contributed by the fall in prices of basic metals, food products, mineral oils, textiles, non-food articles, chemical and chemical products, rubber and plastic products, and paper products. The country’s WPI inflation has been easing continuously for the last 11 months. The month-over-month change in WPI for the month of April 2023 over March 2023 remained at 0.0 percent.
The food price inflation last month dropped significantly to 0.17 percent from 2.32 percent in March. In manufactured products, the inflation rate declined (minus) 2.42 percent, compared to (minus) 0.77 percent in March. For the primary articles segment, the inflation rate cooled to 1.60 in April against 2.40 percent in March, Fuel and power basket inflation eased to 0.93 percent last month from 8.96 percent in March.
The depreciation in WPI is in line with the decline of retail inflation in April. Retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to an 18-month low of 4.7 percent in April.
